The magazine is much too large to scan...so I typed out the interview because I thought it was worth it...enjoy![:flower: :flower: :flower:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/flowers.gif)
ACNE PAPER #5 | ELEGANCE
Jarvis Cocker & Camille Bidault-Waddington | Musician & Stylist
Interview by Anja Cronberg
Photograph by Albert Cocker
image source | Acne Paper by MMA
That Jarvis Cocker was once the singer in a band called Pulp has probably not escaped many. His wife Camille Bidault-Waddington is just as respected in her field, consulting for brands such as Marc by Marc Jacobs, Martine Sitbon and Pucci, as well as working as Fashion Director of Self Service magazine. This couples love of style is evident in both their professional output and their off-duty appearances, and here they candidly share with us all the story of how they met to why stylists for bands should be illegal.
Camille Bidault-Waddington: We met when I styled his record cover ages ago, I was going out with a photographer at the time.
Jarvis Cocker: Yeah, there was no romance at that point.
Camille: It was purely professional. We didn't see each other for three years after that. And then we met again at Steve Mackey's birthday party. We got drunk and talked a lot. We talked about children, and he said he didn't want any. Afterwards I went back to London but I forgot my blankets, so later had to go pick them up at his house.
Jarvis: And then we decided to go on a date.
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Camille: Jarvis did this think that I love. At first I thought it was weird, but now I like it. When we go out he checks to see what I'm wearing, like the colours or shapes. It's not that he tries to match me but he can dress in the same family of colours. It's this old school way of showing that you belong.
Jarvis: Yeah, but it's not like we wear exactly the same thing. It's not like it's his n' hers.
Camille: No, no, that's not what I'm saying at all. It's just like the same family of colours.
Jarvis: It's about wearing something related.
Camille: When I styled Pulp that first time, I remember Jarvis came with his own suitcase of stuff. I still remember Jarvis came with his own suitcase and stuff. I still remember that blue jumper, the one with a boat neck. It was quite girly, but still cute. He finished with all his own clothes, which I think was really good. There's no way he could have worn anything else.
Jarvis: I think stylists for bands should be illegal. The thing about a band, for me anyway, is that it isn't just to do with the music, it's to do with an attitude. The way a band looks has a lot to do with that. I expect a band to write their own songs, and I also expect them to dress themselves. I think it's cheating if you get someone else to do it for you. It just doesn't seem right to me. With Pulp we never had a uniform, it would have been physically impossible. We were never an elegant group.
Camille: You were all a little like cartoon characters, but you were very inspirational. When I didn't know him, he was very cool. I still find him cool, though I know him more now. It's true that you were a fashion icon in those days. Like Blur with their student T-shirts, and Suede with their black leather jackets and skinny trousers -- it was a fashion musical moment.
Jarvis: I suppose so. The thing I have against stylists is that the stylist might be very talented, and do a really good job...
Camille: Ah so you're trying to be nice to my profession for one second!
Jarvis: No, I'm not. What I mean is that if a stylist manages to make a band look interesting, when they're really boring, then that's a con, and it should be prosecuted under the Trade Description Act! Obviously people have influences over you, and can help you along the way, but in the end you have to make your own decisions. I've probably worn some terrible things over the years.
Camille: Yes, you did! But really you can handle lots of things, because of your body, and your behaviour. You look good in everything.
Jarvis: Well, you didn't like when I wore those plastic sandals.
Camille: Oh god, I hate them! Imagine those little toes in plastic, a, what, thirty-eight? If I wear something he doesn't like, I usually don't wear it when he's there, but I do sometimes wear it when he's not. It does put me off a bit though to know that he thinks it's crap, although he's much more polite about it than I am. I don't dress for other people, but I do dress for the occasion. Like when Jarvis curated the Meltdown festival in London. First I thought it would be cool to wear my Chanel suit to the Motorhead concert, but then I thought it would be uncool just to be the opposite, and in the end I just couldn't be bothered. All the same, each concert made me dress in a different way.
Jarvis: Yeah, but you didn't put on a leather jacket to go to the Motorhead concert, and then a boilersuit to go to the Cornershop concert and a ball gown to the John Barry show. I don't like it when people try to fit in too much. You have to tailor yourself a little bit to your surroundings of course. To me that's like if it's raining you'll wear a plastic mac and an umbrella -- it's just being practical -- but you don't want to end up being a social chameleon.
Camille: But I am. It's part of my job.
Jarvis: Yeah, but you don't throw your own aesthetic out the window just to fit in with the occasion do you?
Camille: No, but I'm less faithful to things than you are. If I like something, I'll probably end up hating it five minutes later, and then liking it again ten minutes after that. Being in my job, it's inevitable to keep having those reactions. I used to wear lots of colour, and lots of people still think I only like pink bows. Now I don't like things that are too frilly, there's a certain Calvinism over my style.
Jarvis: I think you're good at combining things that you wouldn't immediately think would go together. You have a good imagination. I, on the other hand, have no imagination whatsoever. I've stuck to the same things for twenty years. I try to look like a slightly edgy geography teacher. Like what a geography teacher looked like when I was in school. Cords, sensible shoes and glasses. I never liked geography much as a subject though. In fact the only geography teacher I can remember from school was a woman who had a moustache.